Sarky deletion messages

[Pipistrella]

Hello

I hope you don't mind me saying this. It may be a crappy job dealing with reports and so on especially when it's the night shift, (though actually I quite like the sound of it myself, being self-important and nosy)

But I've noticed a couple of deletion messages that seem a bit, well, sarcastic, lately - I don't mind the humour in them at all but it feels almost like whoever is writing them, isn't really up for the job, doesn't like us - there's no sense of 'come on, chaps, behave' or the simple 'AHEM' we have grown to love.

It reminds me of being at school and there are teachers who like you, and teachers who just don't want to be there...and it makes me a bit sad.

There's another forum I frequent where the mods can bitter old sods, and people get pretty resentful about it, pretty quickly.

I'd hate for MN to turn that way. we're all on (roughly) the same side, aren't we, after all?

[BeccaMumsnet]

Hi Pipistrella - sorry that you're feeling this way

Do you have any links to examples we can take a look at?
We'd love to work on this - thanks for posting about it.

[Pipistrella]

Thank you for the reply Becca and don't feel sad, it was just a comment as normally the deletion messages are funny or just sensible iykwim?

This one seemed a bit - well, off.

I was kind of hoping whoever wrote it wasn't actually miserable and that it was just an attempt at humour that misfired.

[Pipistrella]

I didn't see your one, Hesterton. I imagine it was spot on as usual. I think a lot of thought generally goes into them.

[steppemum]

I love them.

The one you linked to made me laugh.

Dry sarcastic humour is why I like mn

[poorbuthappy]

Damn the app and the inability to see deletion messages.

[Waltermittythesequel]

I've never had a problem with the deletion messages.

If they become all sweetness and light, I'll have a problem!

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

YABU!

I love the comments.

[PitilessYank]

Please keep the sarcastic deletion messages. I live in the earnest Midwestern USA and am starving for dry wit on a daily basis!!

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

OP - I don't think that deletion mesage you posted was off. Why do you think it was?

[Pipistrella]

Oh it's probably just perception isn't it? I thought it sounded a bit Delia Smith

disapproving iyswim

I'm sure I just read it wrong. Mostly I love them.

[Pipistrella]

I mean - to me, it sounded patronising and very much 'us and them'.

[VagueIdeas]

I think it's great that some deletion messages are sarky. Why not treat the threads with the contempt they deserve?

[cruikshank]

I agree that it sounded a bit 'us and them' - like there was some kind of club the understood what was behind the message; a sort-of injoke if you like which also implies consensus between the mods and the rest of the people on the site who 'get it'.

Just from the message alone, I haven't got the foggiest what the thread was about, or what the reason for deleting it actually was - clearly am not in the club.

[cruikshank]

poorbuthappy this is the message:

Thread deleted
Message from MNHQ: Surprise, surprise. It didn't take all that long for this thread to turn sour.

We thought we'd save ourselves the trouble of all the inevitable reports about it and nip it in the bud.

[Pipistrella]

I do think contempt should be avoided when the person who started the thread had no ill intent.

[Pipistrella]

Fwiw it was the thread about unpopular opinions. It seemed to have been started in good humour. I have been here 8 years and have to admit I was a bit surprised when it got as nasty as it did. So to me the 'surprise' thing was unwarranted.

[Pipistrella]

Sorry Maryz, crossed posts there. I'm sure I've seen similar threads in the past that went on a lot longer and got a lot less bad.

[Pipistrella]

[slithytove]

It's only us and them in the sense that it was clear to those who were on the thread that the same as always happens. And through the whole thread posters were saying that it wouldn't end well.

Are deletion messages supposed to make sense to those who weren't on the thread?

[Pipistrella]

You don't see the message if you weren't on the thread.

(I was on the thread)